Robert Mountsier Collection

Mountsier, Robert (1888-1972)

Robert Mountsier was recording secretary of the Student Lecture Bureau, University of Michigan, ca. 1910, and editor of The Evening Sun in New York, ca. 1911-1912.

Mountsier, Robert (1888-1972)

Robert Mountsier was recording secretary of the Student Lecture Bureau, University of Michigan, ca. 1910, and editor of The Evening Sun in New York, ca. 1911-1912.

The collection consists of correspondence and manuscripts of Robert Mountsier. The correspondence is divided into two parts. The first part dates from the time that Mountsier was recording secretary of the Student Lecture Bureau at the University of Michigan. It consists of letters and drafts of letters from Mountsier inviting educators, authors, senators, politicians, inventors, and other prominent persons to lecture at the Student Lecture Bureau, or for theatrical companies to perform, during the academic year 1908-1909. Correspondents include Elisha Benjamin Andrews, James Burrill Angell, Albert Jeremiah Beveridge, David Brewer, Andrew Carnegie, Joseph Gurney Cannon, Joseph Hodges Choate, Charles Warren Fairbanks, Harrison Grey Fiske, William Crawford Gorgas, John Hays Hammond, Sr., John Grier Hibben (Princeton University's 14th president), James Jerome Hill, Charles Rann Kennedy, John Worth Kern, Philander Chase Knox, Jack London, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Charles Edward Magoon, Henry John Miller, John Mitchell, Hugo Münsterberg, Thomas Nelson Page, James Whitcomb Riley, Elihu Root, John Singer Sargent, William Howard Taft, Takahira Kogoro, Ida Minerva Tarbell, Augustus Thomas, Charlemagne Tower, Walter Wellman, and Benjamin Ide Wheeler.

The second part of the correspondence is chiefly with Hiram S. Cody who worked with the Mexican Petroleum Co. in Mexico. The company was planning to build a clubhouse at Ebano that included an entertainment hall, a library, a billiard and game room, and an auditorium with weekly "moving pictures," stereopticon entertainments, dances, concerts, amateur plays, and slide and travel talks. Cody in Mexico and Mountsier in the United States discuss the purchase of stereopticon and "moving picture equipment," lenses, spools, library books and magazine subscriptions, billiard tables, binders, travel films and slides, a Gentleman's piano player, the latest song hits, bookplates, rubber stamps, and duplicating machines. Mountsier also corresponded with H. C. Boggs of the Corps of Engineers to provide him with copies of relief maps of the Suez Canal for the travel talks at the Clubhouse. Included are letters and drafts of letters of Mountsier to Mr. Grosvenor, editor of the National Geographic Magazine dated March 1912, applying for the position of editor for the Volta Review.

The manuscripts are typed announcements regarding the ten prominent speakers who agreed to talk at the Student Lecture Bureau during the 1908-1909 academic year. Also included is the promotional pamphlet that was printed with photographs and biographical information of the speakers as well as a prospectus of the pamphlet.

The collection was formed as a result of a Departmental practice of combining into one collection material of various accessions relating to a particular person, family, or subject.

Various AM.

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Folder inventory added by James Clark '14 in 2012.

No appraisal information is available.

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Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Robert Mountsier Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Publisher

Manuscripts Division

Date

2008

Creator

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections

Mountsier, Robert (1888-1972)

Subject

Clubhouses -- Mexico -- Ebano -- 20th century

Editors -- New York (N.Y.) -- 20th century -- Correspondence

Lectures and lecturing -- Michigan -- 20th century

People

Cody, Hiram S.

Organization

Compañía Mexicana de Petróleo "El Aguila," S.A.

University of Michigan.

Language

English

Form

Correspondence -- 20th century

Typescripts -- 20th century